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What Is The Loss Of Identity In The Great Gatsby

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The American Identity is always a reach in this story, and socially speaking it is even harder to reach. Moreover, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick, who is the main protagonist, and his friend Gatsby struggle with the fact that they will never be able to reach the social class or status they want. This means for Nick and Gatsby the American identity is impossible to achieve since having the ideal social status is necessary to fit in. This introduces the fact, that Fitzgerald uses diction throughout The Great Gatsby to critique the impossible ways to achieve the social status of the American identity. For starters, Fitzgerald demonstrates the impossibility of achieving the social status of the American identity through the attempts made to fulfill …show more content…

Pursued and pursuing refer to a cycle of attempting to achieve a higher social status and gradually increasing, yet no one ever reaches that point. Busy and tired refers to people who attempt to reach that ideal social status but continuously fail since it is impossible, which leads them to claim that title of being busy and tired. Those few words critique the fact that social identity is out of reach after many repetitive failed attempts. Overall, Fitzgerald takes the social status in the book and uses those specific words and demonstrates various failed attempts showing the impossibleness of achieving the American identity. Secondly, Fitzgerald adds to the hardships of acquiring ideal social status for the American identity through Nick’s experience at Gatsby’s party, which was enchanting but repelling at the same time. Nick describes his experience at Gatsby’s party. He mentions how he wanted to leave but arguments pulled him back in to stay which led him to say to himself, “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life” (Fitzgerald

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Despite the stories that went around about Gatsby, Nick looked past them to learn who he truly was. “He smiled understandingly… it was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced… the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself… I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (Fitzgerald, 49).

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In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the author tells an intriguing tale about the hollowness of the upper class, thwarted love between a man and a woman and the rapid decline of the American dream. Although all of the chapter’s work hand in hand to explore these themes, three of the nine chapters hold the most significant turning points in the novel. One of them which includes chapter three. In this chapter, Nick attends Gatsby’s party.

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David Trask juxtaposes the idea of the American Dream due to social classes and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the arrival entitled A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Trask hones in on the social movement brought about during the nineteen-twenties and focuses on Jay Gatsby- the main character of The Great Gatsby- to show how he is the definition of the American Dream. Trask also attempts to figure out how Fitzgerald got the name Jay Gatsby from his original name of James Gatz. From this he begins to focus on the background of Gatsby and questions if his Western upbringing was a cause of his immediate downfall? It is obvious by the end of the article that social classes are real; with his research readers can be swayed to agree

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Throughout the novel Nick often finds himself standing in awe of Gatsby’s great fortune; his extravagant parties leave him astonished. He watches as couples dance in “eternal graceless circles”, while others run away to corners of the house together

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Significant quotes from “The Great Gatsby” “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, P. 35), this quote is effective, as being placed in the beginning of the book, it demonstrates that the narrator is not attached to either of the worlds that he is speaking about, thus, the reader knows that the narrator will stay objective throughout the book. This technique stands true for the fist chapters of “The Great Gatsby”, where Fitzgerald, by multiple lines, shows that the narrator is trustworthy. This particular quote shows that Nick likes to observe different lives and reserve his judgments, as if he wanted to collect “the inexhaustible variety of lives” in his mind and then process them later.

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Nick describes the scene that he witnessed shortly after he moved to West Egg, “There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars,” (Fitzgerald). As the book goes on and Nick becomes Gatsby’s friend he learns that most people just come to Gatsby’s parties even though they were not even invited. “I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests that had actually been invited. People were not invited- they went there,” (Fitzgerald).

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